To operate a communication device (an optical communication device, a wireless communication device, or the like connected to a wireless base station device) of a backbone system, it is necessary to perform initial setting (setting of the physical layer in the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model) of a main signal relation in each communication device. In the initial setting of the communication device, a worker connects a maintenance terminal to the communication device and performs the setting of the main signal relation on the communication device through the maintenance terminal. The communication device basically performs one-to-one communication and performs the communication without use of address information.
To manage respective communication devices, it is necessary to form a management network including the communication devices as constituent elements, connect a management device (NMS: Network Management System) to the management network, and perform communication with the respective communication devices. However, in the initial setting of the main signal relation in the communication device, initial setting of the management network is not performed in many cases. For example, the reasons are that technology skills necessary for the setting are different, a management part of the management network and a management part performing the initial setting of the communication devices are different in many portions, and address information used in the management network is not used in communication of main signals. In general, the minimum initial setting of the main signal relation is performed during the installation work of the devices and the initial setting of the management network is often performed at a start timing of a subsequent operation.
For this reason, when the management network including the respective communication devices as the constituent elements is configured, an administrator determines address information assigned to the respective communication devices after completion of the installation of the respective communication devices and the initial setting of the main signal relation. Thereafter, a worker arrives at installation places of the communication devices again and performs the initial setting of the management network such as setting of the address information. After the time of completion of the initial setting of the management network, the communication devices can be set from a management device installed at a remote place from the communication devices. Therefore, operations of the communication devices start.
Patent documents 1 and 2 disclose methods of setting address information in a communication device.